Paris metro gets an IKEA design upgrade

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Mass transportation sure is convenient, but it’s often far from comfortable. Hard plastic seating. Harsh fluorescent lighting. Pungent smells. It’s not the type of environment where you linger longer than necessary. Global furniture uber-retailer IKEA feels your pain and is trying to do something about it – at least temporarily.

From now until March 24th, the company is giving four Paris Metro Stops an interior design makeover, complete with comfy couches and warm mood lighting. Considering the state of your average urban subway stop, covered in old chewing gum and smelling of urine, the idea seems like a good one. IKEA gets some attention-grabbing advertising and riders get a comfy place to chill out while they wait.

The question remains – how long will those couches stay clean? It’s one thing to enjoy an IKEA couch in your home, but with over 10 million residents in greater Paris, you’ve gotta wonder how long those seats are going to stay clean…

Marriott plans to double Europe hotels by 2015

by Melanie Nayer on


Europe is fast becoming the growth spot for hotels. In an effort to increase its global presence, Marriott International announced plans to double its portfolio in Europe by 2015.

Marriott opened its first Europe hotel 35 years ago and today has over 170 hotels throughout Europe including Ritz-Carlton, Bvlgari, JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Renaissance Hotels, Courtyard by Marriott and Marriott Executive Apartments. According to Marriott International, the development pipeline in Europe includes nearly 30 projects including the Renaissance Moscow Monarch Center Hotel (2010), the Courtyard by Marriott Budapest (2010) and the JW Marriott Hotel Ankara (2010). Marriott also plans to introduce two new brands to the Europe market including Edition, a boutique-lifestyle collaboration between Ian Schrager and Marriott; and the Autograph Collection, Marriott’s newest brand of independent hotels and resorts.

From the press release:

“Our new operating structure, comprised of four continental divisions including Europe, will help facilitate global growth and bring our teams closer to markets and to our customers. We have tremendous opportunities to grow, with over a third of our current pipeline and about half of our full-service openings this year located in markets outside North America,” said Arne Sorenson, president and chief operating officer of Marriott International.%Gallery-73514%

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European airlines playing hardball with passengers lacking US travel clearance

by Scott Carmichael on

Last year, the United States introduced the ESTA visa pre-clearance system. With ESTA, all US bound passengers from visa waiver countries need to apply for travel permission 72 hours before they depart.

The system is designed to give the US government a clear picture who will be attempting to enter the country. In its early stages, airlines were given a bit of leeway when it came to passengers boarding their planes without the ESTA approval, but starting March 20th, that will no longer be the case.

For each passenger that arrives in the US without clearance, the airline will be fined $3300. Obviously, this steep fine means the airlines will be paying extremely close attention to passenger documents. Dutch national carrier KLM claims that about 7% of their daily US bound passengers failed to apply for the ESTA clearance. This number equals 350 passengers, or a potential fine of over one million Dollars each day!

At check-in, staff will be able to verify the ESTA status, and for those passengers that “forgot” to do their homework, an expedited system is available. But if the systems are down, or the clearance is not granted on time, passengers will be denied boarding.

Restuarants may be closed during holidays – International travel tip

by Gadling Staff on

When traveling in Europe over major holidays, you may find the restaurants closed for dinner. Most hotels, even smaller pension-style places, will take pity on you, however, and let you use their kitchen or help you heat up food.

On a recent trip in Annecy, France, we bought delicious pre-made dishes from a gourmet traiteur (deli) and the hotel manager happily heated them for us. We set out a nice table in the hotel bar, shared a glass of champagne with another traveling couple, and the hotel staff brought us slices of Christmas cake for dessert: a wonderful Christmas dinner!

Photo of the Day (3.9.10)

by Stephen Greenwood on
Take a closer look. Go on – click the image! Is it a miniature train set? Photoshop trickery? Not quite. Today’s Photo of the Day is from Flickr user dileeps, who managed to take this shot of Sienna using a tilt-shift lens.

Tilt-shift lenses have the ability to tilt the plane of focus and shift the camera’s line of sight, which can be used to produce the “miniature faking” effect seen above. Sometimes referred to as “smallgantics“, it’s a trend that’s becoming more widespread with the aid of digital processing – so if you see something that looks too small and detailed to be true, you now know what the explanation is.

If you have some tricks up your photo processing sleeves, we want to see them! Submit your photo to Gadling’s Flickr Pool and it could be featured as our Photo of the Day!